The Canterbury Tales ~ Main

Whan that Aprille,
with hise shoures soote,
The droghte of March
hath perced to the roote
-Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 1-2.

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Welcome to the ELF Edition of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. This site features two full editions of the Canterbury Tales online: the original Middle English text, and a Modern English translation in rhyming couplets. The texts can be viewed enface ('facing page'), as well as in interpolated formats (mixed line by line).

The text is illustrated with portraits from the Ellesmere Manuscript and the Kelmscott reprinting. It also uses, optionally, the CarrickCaps Font to illuminate capitals. (Right-click on the font link, save the file to your Windows/Fonts folder, and restart your browser.)

We hope you enjoy this presentation of The Canterbury Tales. Our current selections from classic literature include Dante's Divine Comedy, Shakespeare, the Arabian Nights, and other Great books.